REPORT COMMISSIONED BY THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION INDICATES SMOKING
MARIJUANA HAS MEDICAL BENEFITS FOR CANCER AND AIDS PATIENTS

Aired March 17, 1999 - 6:30 p.m. ET

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ANNOUNCER: This is the MONEYLINE NEWSHOUR, with Lou Dobbs.

LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, tonight on the NEWSHOUR, significant
developments on three major stories we're following. Cancer and AIDS relief
- -- is marijuana the only drug that really helps? Surprising answers, today,
from a government commission.

And outside Chicago, Amtrak tonight is under heavy criticism while
investigators are zeroing in on a set of tire tracks. We'll have the latest
for you.

And on Wall Street, into thin air. The Dow Jones industrials retreat in the
face of 10,000. We'll have a complete market report for you, and a look at
a strong surge in oil prices, and what it all means.

We begin, tonight, with medical marijuana and a surprising new report that
is setting off alarms across the country. The study is by the Institute of
Medicine, a scientific agency that provides the government with independent
advice, and their findings have stunned official Washington.

According to the institute, marijuana is one of the most effective
treatments available for relieving the nausea, pain and loss of appetite
associated with both cancer and AIDS. There is no evidence that marijuana
use leads to harder drug usage. And while smoking the drug does cause harm,
the benefits outweigh the risks.

We have two reports for you tonight. We begin with Eileen O'Connor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some AIDS
patients, like Greg Scott, live in fear of arrest. For Greg says, despite
the fact that it's illegal, he uses marijuana to stay alive.

GREG SCOTT, AIDS PATIENT: In fact, I'm certain that had it not been for
marijuana, I would have died.

O'CONNOR: Without marijuana, Greg says he couldn't eat. His weight had
dropped to 130 pounds. His relatives, he said, were on a death watch. But
the development of drugs called protease inhibitors has prolonged his life,
and he continues to use marijuana to help him cope with the drugs' side
effects, the nausea, loss of appetite and pain.

SCOTT: Marijuana is the perfect medicine for this, because it both
suppresses the nausea and enhances your appetite.

O'CONNOR: A new report by the Institute of Medicine agrees that, for many,
there is a benefit.

DR. STANLEY WATSON, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: There are many symptoms for
which a quick acting drug is ideal -- such symptoms as pain, nausea and
vomiting. For that reason, we recommend development of a rapid on-set, but
non-smoked delivery system, such as an inhaler.

O'CONNOR: Drug czar Barry McCaffrey insists this report is in no way
justification for legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.

GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, DRUG POLICY DIRECTOR: First of all, they say there's
little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication.

O'CONNOR: But the Marijuana Policy Project criticizes the IOM's call for
more research as "just more stalling." They denounced the Clinton
administration's stand that legalizing marijuana for medical use sends kids
the wrong message.

CHUCK THOMAS, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT: If we talk to kids and tell them
about marijuana the same thing that we would tell them about morphine or
cocaine, that this is a medicine, it's not for you to use for fun, that we
would actually be sending the right message.

O'CONNOR: For Greg Scott, this report accomplished little.

SCOTT: My research is complete. Marijuana saved my life. I have no doubts
about it, and you don't need to show me any data.

O'CONNOR: All the government should do, he says, is legalize marijuana for
patients who need it.

Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOBBS: The report also calls for new research into developing safer ways to
deliver marijuana's medicinal benefits without having to smoke it.

Allan Dodds Frank, tonight, on who stands to gain if marijuana goes to market.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN DODDS FRANK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The potential market for
medical marijuana is huge, even if its use is restricted to patients
suffering from AIDS or cancer. At the press conference unveiling the
findings of the Institute of Medicine's medical marijuana study, doctors
called for the development of new ways to deliver the drug.

DR. JOHN BENSON, OREGON HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY: While we see a future
in the development of chemically defined cannabinoid (ph) drugs, we see
little future in smoked marijuana as a medicine. That said, we concluded
that there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking
marijuana for medical uses.

FRANK: Other doctors and the American Medical Association suggest that the
pharmaceutical industry perhaps should develop an inhaler or vaporizer that
would allow patients to get the benefits of the active ingredients in
marijuana without inhaling smoke.

DR. RANDOLPH SMOAK, CHAIR, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: We would hope that
there would be sufficient value for a product to be developed, and that
being in a free market enterprise, probably would have some profit related
to it. But it shouldn't be something exorbitant, it shouldn't be taken
advantage of.

FRANK: There already is a pill on the market, called Marinol, that contains
a synthetic version of TCH, the key ingredient in marijuana. But many
patients who now smoke marijuana say the pill is not as fast, nor as
effective. Neither the new study, nor the Clinton administration's drug
policy chief, endorses the use of smoked marijuana.

(on camera): Still, new medical devices may prove to be expensive, and
widening acceptance of the notion that marijuana has legitimate medicinal
purposes could give the biggest boost to black market growers, a market
estimated to be $15 billion a year.

Allan Dodds Frank, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[The rest of the show moved on to other topics]